#34 #34 Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower

Ike in the Cold War

TWO NATIONS LIVE

ON THE EDGE

• After World War II, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. competed in developing atomic and hydrogen bombs

• The Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949

• The U.S. began work on a bomb 67 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima – the hydrogen bomb

An H-bomb test conducted by America near Bikini Island in Pacific Ocean, 1954

(13) THE WARSAW PACTTo counter the U.S. defense alliance (NATO), in 1955

the Soviets formed their own mutual defense alliance known as the Warsaw Pact

NATO

WARSAW

NEUTRAL

Eisenhower’s Eisenhower’s Foreign Foreign PolicyPolicy a. Made no basic changes in the

containment policyb. Republicans pressured him to reduce

government spendingc. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John

Foster Dulles developed a strategy called massive retaliation.

d. Massive Retaliation meant threatening to respond to Soviet aggression anywhere in the world with a nuclear attack.

e. Brinkmanship meant willing to “go to the brink” of all-out war to contain communism

f. Dulles’ policy was pure bluff – neither Dulles or Eisenhower ever seriously considered dropping a nuclear bomb

g. To do so would have been suicidal!

(3)End of the Korean End of the Korean WarWara. Eisenhower campaigned to end the

Korean Warb. Eisenhower and Dulles hinted to the Chinese and North Koreans – “peace or else”

c. June 1953 – a truce was signed – no final treaty has ever been signed!

d. U.S. soldiers remain at the DMZ of the 38th Parallel

Demilitarized Zone Demilitarized Zone (buffer zone) (buffer zone)

of the of the 3838thth Parallel Parallel

Strengthening of CommunismStrengthening of Communism

a. East Germany (1953) and Hungary (1956) both revolted (civil wars, revolutions) against their communist governments – but Eisenhower did not intervene!

THE HUNGARIAN UPRISING

• Dominated by the Soviet Union since the end of WWII, the Hungarian people rose up in revolt in 1956- they wanted a Democracy

• Led by Imre Nagy, the liberal Communist leader of Hungary, the people demanded free elections and the end of Soviet domination

The Soviets responded to the Hungarian revolt with tanks

The Soviets’ response was swift and brutal – 30,000 Hungarians were killed (including Nagy) as the Soviets reasserted control

b. France was forced out of Vietnam

(Vietnam was a French colony known as French Indochina since the 1860s) in 1954 by Communist forces

led by Ho Chi Minh.

(9) The Geneva Accords of 1956 divided Vietnam along the 17th Parallel – Communist North Vietnam and Democratic South Vietnam.

North Vietnam=CommunistNorth Vietnam=CommunistSouth Vietnam = DemocraticSouth Vietnam = Democratic

(7) Domino Theory• The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when

a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change…

Why would America care about Vietnam? Way over there… on the other side of the world?

If Vietnam falls to communism… so will their neighbor… and their neighbor… and …

(5) Army-McCarthy Hearings• Remember…• 1950, Senator Joseph R.

McCarthy of Wisconsin charged the state department was riddled with traitors. These accusations created a sense of hysteria across the country

• 1954 – one of McCarthy’s assistants was drafted into the army – McCarthy tried unsuccessfully to get him excused from service

• McCarthy announced an investigation of “ subversive (communist spy) activities” in the US Army

• Resulted in the televised Army-McCarthy Hearings

Senator Joseph Senator Joseph McCarthyMcCarthy

• Millions of people watched the empty charges of McCarthy which eventually led to his demise• McCarthy was censured (a slap on the hand) by the Senate – he remained a senator until his death in 1957•The fear of communist infiltration relaxed in the US

THE COLD WAR SPREADS• With the threat of the powerful

communist Soviet Union and the Cold War looming, President Truman soon recognized the need for a centralized intelligence system, even in peacetime.

• As the Cold War heated up, the U.S. depended more and more on information compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

• The CIA began attempts to weaken or overthrow foreign governments that were unfriendly to the U.S. (not something the Soviets would exactly approve of...)

"We went all over the world and we did what we wanted. God, we had fun."

-- Al Ulmer, chief of the CIA's 1950’s Far East division

COVERT (secret) ACTIONS IN THE

MIDDLE EAST• One of the first covert operations occurred in the Middle East

» - In Iran the U.S. » orchestrated the return» of the pro- U.S. » Shah of Iran in 1953

The last Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Covert Operations in Latin America

• In 1954, the CIA also took covert actions in Guatemala (a Central America country just south of Mexico)

• The U.S. believed Guatemala was on the verge of becoming Communist, so the CIA trained an army which invaded the small country

• The actions eventually failed as a military dictator rose to power

An approach launched in the 1950's, when confident WWII vets set out to stop Communism with a new kind of warfare that would eventually be called counterinsurgency. It is well known that the CIA engineered a coup in Guatemala in 1954, and that Americans lavished training and equipment on US-friendly Governments.

LONG after its humiliations in the U-2 and Bay of Pigs fiascos, the C.I.A. continued reaching into its bag of tricks

to assure that Guatemala would not become a failure.

''It's one of the saddest chapters of American relations with Latin America,'' said Frederick Hitz, the C.I.A. inspector general from 1990 to 1998. ''The United States felt responsible for what it started by removing their communist- friendly leader, and essentially we were trapped. We started something and didn't know how to get off the train.''

Following an investigation of the matter, in 1995 the Clinton Administration's Intelligence Oversight Board, expressed bewilderment. ''The board asked itself: the cold war's over -- what are we doing down there?''

A Thaw in A Thaw in the Cold the Cold

War?War?

(4) Stalin died in 1953 – Nikita Khrushchev became the Soviet Premier

b. Many thought there might be a “thaw in the cold war” due to a new Soviet leader.

Did Stalin die of natural causes or was Stalin killed

• Official Cause of Death…. Brain Hemorrhage or Stroke• The story- Stalin went to bed one night after

drinking and was later (20 hours later- they were afraid to

go in and check on him) found by his advisors/guards laying in a urine soaked bed unable to speak. Their fear of the leader was the reasoning behind their inaction towards Stalin's state.

• Conspiracy?? Stalin was injected with poison by the guard Khrustalev, under the orders of his master, KGB chief Lavrenty Beria, because he was about to plunge the Soviet Union into a war its people were in no position to fight…

What do you believe?

Now- with a new Soviet Leader… In July 1955 –(4)The Geneva Summit

Meeting of world leaders met to discuss a possible end to the Cold War.

EISENHOWER

KHRUSHCHEV

(15) Suez Canal (15) Suez Canal CrisisCrisis

a. Egypt (backed by USSR) invaded Israel in 1956 and seized control of the Suez Canal

b. Israel fought back – joined by Great Britain and France – both wanted to reopen the canal.

c. Eisenhower was in a

dilemma – the U.S. backed Israel and were allies with Great Britain and France.

d. Eisenhower rejected using force to regain the canal – he demanded the 3 nations withdraw from Egypt.

e. Soviets demanded the same, and Egypt kept control of the Suez Canal (not much of a thaw….)

f. USSR will enjoy a much closer relationship with the Arab nations after this We countered this with (18) the Eisenhower Doctrine (1957), which pledged military aid to any Middle Eastern country fighting communism.

(1 point for the soviets)b. Sputnik (Russian word for “traveling

companion”)c. Sputnik traveled around earth at 18,000

miles an hour, circling the globe every 96 minutes

d. November, the Russians launched Sputnik II – dog onboard!

(19) Sputnik and the Cold War Space Race

a. October 4, 1957 – the Soviets launched the first satellite into space- they “intellectually” beat the US

Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2Russian SatellitesRussian Satellites

(25) National Aerospace and Aeronautics (NASA) was created in 1958 to promote space research and show that Americans were intellectually capable.

d. The U.S. had MANY embarrassing feats – but finally launched a small satellite in February 1958.

(8) Congress passed the National Defense Education Act because Americans were determined to catch up to the Soviets –to ensure American students were studying math and science.

g. NDEA: $887 million in loans to needy college students for the improvement of teaching the sciences and languages.

U-2 PLANES

SPY ON

SOVIETS

• In the late 1950s, the CIA began secret high-altitude spy missions over Soviet territory

• The U-2’s infra-red cameras took detailed pictures of Soviet troop movements & missile sites

(28)U-2 (28)U-2 AffairAffair

a. 1960 – the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane.

b. Eisenhower denied that we had a plane on a spying mission.

c. Khrushchev revealed that the pilot had survived – and they knew EXACTLY what he’d been doing!

d. GREAT embarrassment to the Eisenhower administration.

e. Powers had parachuted into Soviet territory, was captured and sentenced to 10-years in prison

d. Powers was released in 1962 in exchange for convicted Soviet spy Rudolph Abel

d. Ike promised flights would stop but would not apologize. There was no more thawing of the Cold War between Ike and Khrushchev after this!

e. To the rest of the world…this made America look like the aggressor nation

f. Because of this incident, the 1960s opened with tension between the two superpowers as great as ever

(26) Communism in Cuba?• On January 8, 1959,

Fidel Castro's Communist Friendly army rolled victoriously into Havana, Cuba only 90 miles from the US. As news of the fall of Batista's government spread through Havana, The New York Times described the scene as one of jubilant crowds pouring into the streets and automobile horns honking.

(27) Alaska• The 49th State

in added in 1959. Purchased from USSR in 1867 for its strategic location and vast natural resources

(27) Hawaii• 50th State,

also added in 1959

• Location!!!